There’s a lot happening at the moment
There’s a lot happening at the moment… https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_theres-a-lot-happening-activity-7307664703923576833-1n4m Is this an age of disempowerment and sterile opposition, as the foundations of our world are torn down without thought? Or might we find a deeper transformation of how we stand up for what matters most?
There’s a lot happening at the moment
Is this an age of disempowerment and sterile opposition, as the foundations of our world are torn down without thought? Or might we find a deeper transformation of how we stand up for what matters most?
Join the discussion on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_theres-a-lot-happening-activity-7307664703923576833-1n4m
Just in the UK, current local government reform might abolish Counties established in the Local Government Act of 1888 (with far deeper history), along with the historic City of York (1396).
The Casey Review could bring in the biggest care changes since the establishment of the NHS. And — having thought we were promised a respite from major structural changes — the NHS is instead facing multiple upheavals at once.
Assisted Dying legislation is being rushed through Parliament with some of the voices most affected not heard, potentially with all-night sittings.
Radical changes to Apprenticeships are under way but remain unclear.
And attacks on the expectations of disabled people, families of children with disabilities, and those with pensions continue.
That’s just sample from the UK. In the US, the lack of care is explicit, intentional: ‘pull out servers and see what crashes.’ Here, it’s less clear what is actually happening…
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But if systems thinking giants in the 1950s condemned ‘zombie companies’ for lacking any grasp of second-order impacts and of the conditions of human flourishing — and if their ‘days were numbered’ then, well, today, those approaches seem to have won.
We see change that doesn’t care about consequences, that mutters ‘this is fine’ while the world burns, that destroys every Chesterton’s Fence for the hell of it. Accelerationism without brakes or steering.
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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: ‘They were careless people… and let other people clean up the mess they had made.’
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I observe that national politics seems to have floated free of local politics — there are no longer any grassroots (or astroturf) bottom-up movements, no need for ‘ground game’ or local issue or councillors.
Have we entered an Era of Continual Opposition? Branko Milanovic points out that one sixth of the population protested in Belgrade, Serbia this weekend, yet the opposition got only 25% at the last election — and the protest movement has to remain anti-political and therefore condemned to eternal opposition.
Some of our best thinkers have retreated to the #cosyweb, huddling in Substacks and Discords, waiting, building community.
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It’s not that there’s no hope.
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A friend coaching very senior people in the largest companies and most influential institutions in the USA sees a shift among her #leadership clients.
Some remain frozen, but others are actively building character. They’re learning to offer hope in chaos, stay true to principles, and move beyond rigid ideologies by thinking more critically. She believes there’s an opportunity to build real stability if we cultivate hope, strength, and loyalty to core beliefs. #systemsthinking #hope
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But we need to recognise that we’re in a different reality now.
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Is this an age of disempowerment and sterile opposition, as the foundations of our world are torn down without thought? Or might we find a deeper transformation of how we stand up for what matters most?
